


Guardian and Protector...

by Khelkhet



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-07-04
Packaged: 2018-04-05 20:50:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4194429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khelkhet/pseuds/Khelkhet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Master Othone, unable to care for an item he liberated from smuggelers, entrusts it to Kheli. Is his heart in the right place? Is he trusting his student with a simple task, or has he got ulterior motives?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“What is it?” Felix had his arms crossed over his chest and was peering dubiously at the newest addition to their Master’s home.

“Egg.” Piped his ‘helpful’ Twi’lek companion, whose stance echoed Felix’s. He grinned like an ass and indicated the object in question with the back of his hand. “See? Egg.”

Felix smirked and rolled his yes. “No shit it’s an egg. I meant, what’s inside it?” He scoffed when the Twi’lek man simply shrugged.

The egg in question was moderately sized and blue, and presently resting on a pedestal positioned near the blue jedi holocron at the foot of Khel’s bed. It had been crafted a ‘nest’ of sorts out of silk pillows and strips of cloth Khel had sent the droid C2 to purchase in the night, and a series of special illuminators and heaters set up—connected to a generator (“In case of a blackout! The Hutt Cartel does have enemies, after all…”) that Felix had argued could easily power an entire section of the city—to keep it warm and safe.

Apparently, the entire team had decided, Khel was taking Othone’s instructions to care for this egg extremely seriously. C2 had been the most objectionable to the entire situation, since he’d been charged with being more or less the egg’s caretaker in her absence. She’d even given him a pistol so he could “hold off intruders” as necessary…Felix and the Twi’lek droid overseer hadn’t stopped teasing him about it since; the poor protocol droid looked horribly awkward with it fastened to his leg and had whined constantly about it being bad enough he’d become a glorified babysitter, now he was a gun-for-hire too. Felix’s Twi’lek companion had laughed himself hoarse over that one.

The door to Khel’s chamber slid open, and with a chuckle Felix drew her attention, “Is this how we learn where baby Sithlings come from? No wonder they keep it a secret if red-skinned Purebloods come from little *blue* eggs.”

The Twi’lek wanted in on the fun too, apparently. “We’ll get to see a Pureblood’s mothering instincts up close and personal. Are you going to sing to it, tuck it in every night?”

“Asses, both of you.” Khel smirked, and sat on the end of her bed to stare at her two treasures. The Jedi Holocron dutifully spun on its antigrav cushion, and her egg was warm and safe. “I’m not beyond torturing you both with lightning.”

“Ah-ah-ah!” Felix scolded, having learned early on that there were in fact times when it was all right to taunt a sith, “Master Othone said ‘no lightning’.”

“I can throw things, though.” Khel retorted, and all three laughed. It was easy and harmless; she liked these men, and around them she didn’t have to pretend to be Sithy at all. She rather liked that.

“So?” Felix prodded after a few moments. “What’s in it?”

“No idea.”

“None?”

“None.” Khel confirmed. “But it is alive.” She held her hand out as if to touch the egg, but didn’t. She reached out with the Force and caressed it, felt the spark of life growing in it and grinned. “It is alive, and it’s amazing and beautiful and perfect. There’s a baby…something…in there.”

“Mmhmm,” Felix nodded wisely. “And…When will the baby something be joining us?” Beside him, the Twi’lek giggled softly. The conversation had suddenly drawn the attention of C2, who’d been adjusting some readings on the heat providing unit.

Khel clicked her tongue. “Don’t know.”

“You don’t know?!” C2 whined incredulously. “Master, do you mean to say I could be _weeks_ playing the part of nursemaid to an **egg**?!”

“Some animals take months.” Felix offered helpfully, which made the Twi’lek burst into a fit of abrupt laughter again.

“MONTHS!” Exclaimed C2 indignantly.

“I don’t know what it is, how can I possibly know when it’s going to hatch?” Khel protested, grinning at the droid, “Don’t worry, if it takes too long we’ll rotate your egg-watching duties with 2V.”

No one paid him any mind when he suddenly had somewhere else to be, grumbling all the while. Felix shrugged both shoulders, “I guess all we can do now is…wait and see.”

“Gonna take lots of patience,” the Twi’lek agreed with a nod.

Felix and his companion were absolutely correct, of course; the only way she was going to be able to find out what was in the egg was to _wait and see_.

_You need to learn patience,_ Othone had said to her during their last confrontation.

_You need to hurry up and teach me._ That had been her response. _I grow tired of waiting._

Now she got it; the bastard had roped her into a promise—he knew how she **detested** oathbreakers—and gotten her excited and attached to the life form inside the shell, and now she would have to _wait and see_ — **be patient** —if she wanted to see what she had been protecting, never knowing how long she would have to wait.

She couldn’t rush nature, certainly not without risking the life she’d already grown attached to. She would _have_ to be patient. With an exasperated sigh, Khel snarled and flopped back on her bed.

“Son of a **_bitch_**!”

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The egg Khel has tended for several weeks is finally ready to hatch, but has her husbandry been enough? Complications and heartache may be just around the corner, as Khel learns the hard way that sometimes the Will of the Force must be obeyed.
> 
> Guest appearances of two NPCs from other fics.

  
  


“It’s dying.”

 

Khel held her breath, as if doing that could mean one more breath for the ugly little thing cupped in her hands to take in her stead. She picked away bits of shell and let them fall to the floor, a little at a time. During the night a crack had appeared in the shell, but half a day later there were no signs of the critter inside coming out. Khel had made the decision to investigate. It hadn’t taken much to determine that the lifesigns of the creature inside were weak and fading, and while she tried to ease soothing healing energies into it, it seemed to make no difference. Now she was peeling away the last parts of the shell so she could finally look upon the animal she’d been caring for before it died.

 

It was clearly a bird of some sort, though ‘ugly’ barely served to describe it. Inside the shell the thing’s head had been twisted at weird angles and tucked under its body. Its wings, still moist, were spindly and thin. Its four-toed feet were curled. Its eyes were barely slits. Beyond the unsteady and sometimes erratic rise and fall of its ugly, misshapen little chest it had offered no signs of prospering.

 

“It looks like an Orokeet, Master,” 2V reported. “A rare find indeed.” Khel had made an awful sound of disappointment; not that she regretted what it was, but rather that now, finally knowing what it was and after all that care and anticipation and...patience, it was likely to die in her hands. “...I will leave you, Master. Do call me when you’re ready for me to dispose...Do summon me if you need me.”

 

After he’d gone Khel found herself gently stroking the ugly little head and beak, as if willing it to respond. It continued to breathe, nothing more. Through the Force she could sense its struggle, instinct telling it to cling to life, while something else pulled it away. Through the Force she also sensed the arrival of someone she’d left on Coruscant.

 

“It happens sometimes,” Master Shai said sadly, “That an animal is too weak to make it to birth. Many animals die shortly after.”

 

The Pureblood shook her head,  “I don’t understand,” she murmured, “I provided it with the most likely temperatures and humidity, I tried to make everything perfect. I did everything right.”

 

“I do not have to know you well to see you’d do everything within your power to provide for your gift.” The slightly glowing force ghost leaned against the large generator. “But it is the nature of things, Khel. Sometimes they live, sometimes they die.”

 

“If it dies,” Khel started, but she didn’t finish the statement, the threat, she had used so many times. I’ll find a way to bring it back.

 

Master Shai just nodded. “If it dies,” he offered, “Then it is the will of the Force that it do so.”

 

“Don’t say that!” Khel snapped and then instantly regretted it. “I’m sorry, it’s just...I don’t want it to die.”

 

The creature--the orokeet chick--in Khel’s hands suddenly spasmed, its chest pressing inward and it squawked pitifully.  The Pureblood snarled some words, helplessly and mostly profane as the bird became very still.

 

“It’s weak,” Master Shai observed quietly, “But not dead. Not yet. The time has come to make a decision; the bird is suffering.”

 

He was right, of course; for whatever reason the animal was certainly showing no signs of thriving. She could feel it drifting. “I don’t want him to die,” she said again, almost a plea though she wasn’t sure who she was begging. “Can he be saved?”

 

“He?” Shai lifted a brow as the animal was assigned a pronoun. His answer was simple, “Though the Force, all things are possible. Perhaps,” said the force ghost; she could see him with only a half-glance over her shoulder, “The will of the Force is that you should focus less on the permanence of death,” his voice remained a moment though his body had faded from view, “And more on your love of saving lives.”

 

“A Sith shouldn’t care whether a silly little bird lives or dies.” Khel murmured to the silence of her chambers now. Nonetheless she continued to stroke and comfort the dying chick.

 

“A Sith wouldn’t. You are no Sith.” Another voice, one Khel hadn’t heard in more than a month, startled the girl and she tensed. The bird was clutched protectively to her chest by her left hand, and her right reached for her saber. There was no need to draw it, however, as she saw the source of the voice; the Gatekeeper of the blue hologram she’d received from Othone. The hologram of Master Midian had been projected near where Master Shai had stood. “A sith would place no value on something they considered to be weak. They’d be more likely to let it suffer and die or even help it along.”

 

Khel narrowed her eyes at him. When last they’d spoken the hologram had made it clear he had no intention of cooperating with her.

 

The Gatekeeper hologram folded his hands in front of his body, “Now listen to me. I will teach you a healing technique that will not reach beyond the veil of death, but so long as there is still a spark of life it can often hold them here to be healed....It may be enough to save your bird.”

  
  



	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Feeding the baby.

“WHARK!”

 

“He’s hungry again.”

 

“He’s hungry _still_. I don’t think he’s stopped eating.”

 

“Well, feed him!”

 

“It’s your turn.”

 

“I’m busy.”

 

“So am I!”

 

Felix scowled, tossing his cards onto the table, “Where’s the damn droid? He should have been back by now.” he rubbed his eyes, “And where is the damn Sith with--”

 

“Ex-Sith,” the twi’lek interrupted helpfully.

 

“Ex-Sith,” Felix amended with a roll of his eyes, “With the damn cage?”

 

“WHARK!” came the equally as helpful reply, and the little green-feathered ball of fluff cocked its head in confusion at Felix from within its makeshift nest. “WHARK!”

 

The two men had constructed a barrier of sorts out of small crates in Khel’s chamber. When the orokeet had dried and recovered some of its strength, thanks to Khel remaining with it constantly for the first day of its life, it had begun to explore, following droid and person alike as they’d gone about their duties. That had posed too much a threat to what Felix had decided was sure to become the most valuable and well-protected annoying little bird thing on the entire Moon, so they’d built walls of crates to keep him contained lest he get stepped on or lost. That was working, for now.

 

“WHARK!”

 

“I know!” Felix snapped back at the chick, who did not at all react properly to his angry glare and snort of annoyance. He let the Twi’lek shuffle the cards while he retrieved a container of gritty goo from a compartment on the incubator. “When did my job change from ‘security’ to ‘nursemaid’?”

 

The twi’lek shuffled, “Round about the time you started calling the Pureblood your friend instead of your boss would be my guess.”

 

“WHARK!”

 

Felix programmed the device to heat the food, and as he neared the makeshift cage with the bird mash, the chick began to squawk, chirp, scream and otherwise throw a noisy fit that, if there were neighbors, would surely be an indication that someone was being horribly and gruesomely murdered. While being fed it was far worse, and far messier, and apparently far more amusing as the sharp-beaked little creature attacked the spoon felix was using to feed it.

 

“I’ll be glad--ow! When he damn thing’s big enough to eat from a dish on its own.”

 

The Twi’lek agreed, “But it’s too small and too stupid to do that now without drowning itself.”

 

“Don’t let the Sith hear you call it that,” Felix smirked.

 

“Here you call what, what?” Khel asked, having just then arrived. The chamber doors had opened for her and closed again as she made her way over to the crates. “How’s my baby?”

 

Felix stopped feeding it to answer, “Gaining weight right on schedule.” he offered her the bowl of food, “If you’re back…” he started.

 

“WHARK!” screamed the chick in protest when the food supply stopped. By now most of his face, one wing and half its breast was covered in mash. It didn’t seem to mind or even notice.

 

“2V has some crates that need unloading, go ahead..I’ll take over here.”

 

“WHARK!”

 

“You’re a saint.” Felix was practically dragging the Twi’lek when he left.

 

“I am.” Khel agreed, though he’d already gone, and she took Felix’s place on the crate. The rest of the food was devoured just as noisily and just as messily as the first, and then Khel went about trying to clean the now sleepy animal as best she could. “Go to sleep,” she cooed in a most un-Sithy fashion to the baby creature. It stared blankly at her. It did that a lot; from what little she’d read so far about orokeets they were not really known for their intelligence. She didn’t mind, she was just grateful the green-feathered creature was even still alive. “You’re a lucky little thing.” She scritched its fluffy little day-old feathers til the bird settled in against her chest, allowing its eyes to close and head to droop. “Starting to think I am, too.”

 

 


End file.
